Written by Pear Poet, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is considered one of the masterpieces of historical content during the Middle Ages. It was composed from the middle to the late fourteenth century. Very little is known about Pearl Poet, commonly referred to as the “Gawain-poet”. In its untranslated form, the poem is in the dialect of midlands Middle English. Implying, “the Gawain Poet” was from somewhere proximity to northern parts of London, probably the region around Cambridge and Oxford. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem that tells a story about a young man who happened serve as a knight at the court of King Arthur. Told in four fitts and from a historical framework, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight begins and ends with the lineage of Britain from the Troy, an ancient city, to Brutus the Trojan founder in Britain. Central to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, are important ideas such as the Arthurian romance featuring characters as King Arthur and the Gawain, issues as culture and cultural affectations, and middle-age events as the fall of the Roman Empire and Catholic Church which demonstrates its relevance as a reference for historical information.
The Arthurian Romance
The poem reflects and uses a variety of social conventions and norms of the 12 th , 13 th and 14 th centuries. It is a combination of historical tradition or rather idea that developed during the Middle Ages known as Romance. Medieval romance was usually about the long travels and adventures of the knights. Romances in the middle Ages involved tests, challenges, and quests that revolved around moral issues of Christianity. As Pearl’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this genre draws inspiration from real historical events and persons. In his poem, the Pearl poet implies that Romance and history have a common origin (Cooper, 2008). It is the aim of the former to maintain for as long the mask of veraciousness. Not just the real historical events but also Pearl points out that motives such as exile and return, adventure, royalty, and identity have given character to Arthurian romance. The mastery of romance and chivalry in Britain is brought out by Pearl poet in that they set the already famous historic characters into something new from their own perspective. Particularly, King Arthur and the Round Table legends reveal the quality of how the historical sources were processed. The part of the poem about King Arthur and his entourage of knights in the round table, the adventures, quests, and actions have become relevant for every historian and for the various orders of knighthood that came from British Isles (Carter, 2015). They mirror the real-life events that took place during that period.
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Culture and Events
Cultural events of the tribes residing on the British Isles have influenced the historical relevance of the content of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Historical Middle age events have supported with picturesque descriptions of heroic deeds of Gawain and the leader of his tribe, King Arthur (Scott, 2009). A heroic action is represented by the valiant warrior Gawain, fighting against a powerful enemy, the green knight. Pearl brings out Gawain as a very strong man with a large sword and ready to fight the green knight. Gawain respects the crown, rather the lord he serves, King Arthur. His fight was for honor. Such a heroic action has become relevance for historical information about the events and life of knights in England.
The historical information of England is derived from the legendary Camelot. King Arthur was an early Briton who led the battle against the Romans in England during the downfall of the Holy Roman Empire (Cooper, 2008). Together with his royal court of Camelot, King Arthur generated historical information that is relevant in England to date. Through Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl brings out the relevance of King Arthur, in that he delivered England from the hegemony of the Roman Empire. King Arthur was both a judicial and Christian ruler. With the help of his knights, the royalty was honored and the institution of Christianity respected throughout England in the middle ages. Camelot and King Arthur have come to present in history all that great, noble, and royal about England, regardless of its slip from grace (Cooper, 2008).
Splendid Christmas festivities in Camelot is another cultural event that is of historical relevance. During Christmas time, the first festivity takes place at hibernal Camelot. For King Arthur and his entourage, the period of celebration completely differs from what is experienced nowadays; the eve of Christmas, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Camelot celebrates ladies and knights with expectations of the best food and behaviors by the host from the eve of Christmas to the approach of New Year. The fifteen days of celebration are significant in that it represents the historical Arthurian and romance period. Throughout the Christmas festivities, “the Gawain Poet” mentions the cultural norms of washing hands and the high table. To date, washing of hands before going to the dinner table remains a wide-spread custom. Also in the poem, dinners are not served individually but one is required to share a meal with their neighbor. During the middle ages, the use of forks, and napkins was not present like it is today. Thus cleanliness of the neighbors’ hands was of great importance. This reveals the culture and status of the court of King Arthur. Washing of hands before dinner was and still is not something luxurious, but rather adhering to etiquette and being courteous (Talbott, 2012).
The Roman Catholic Church
Central to the history of Britain from the 13 th to sixteenth century is the Roman Catholic Church. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, whose quest was led by King Arthur, England and Europe fell into a period of disarray. For both. the Middle Ages turned to be dark ages. For a long time, the Roman Catholic Church had made England and Europe politically stable with laws that governed the land (Scott, 2009). Christianity itself had been strongly rooted and established in the land through the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the fact that the Roman Catholic Church practiced authoritarian rule over literally everything, ensured that Europe remained stable and united. In other words, the Roman Catholic Church was a double-edged sword; whose one edge was a dictatorship and the other stability needed in Europe. Another relevance of the Roman Catholic Church to the history of Europe is that it brought about equality. Anyone that entered the church was regarded as equal in the presence of God (Proctor, 2017). Regardless of their social status or class.
Conclusion
Central to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, are important ideas such as the Arthurian romance and issues as culture and cultural affectations, and middle-age events as the fall of the Roman Empire and Catholic Church which demonstrates its relevance as a reference for historical information. As discussed in the essay the interlocking of characters as the knights, King Arthur, cultural events as Christmas festivities and cultural affectations as the washing of hands brings out Pearl’s poem as a source of relevant historical information of England. Also, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church is critical for the political stability that was and is still experienced in Europe. Thus Pearl’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight remains a relevant source of information for history scholars.
References
Carter, J. (2015). Conquest, Identity, and Colonial Discourse in Medieval England: New
Perspectives on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Patience (Doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary).
Cooper, H. (Ed.). (2008). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Oxford Paperbacks.
Proctor, E. G. (2017). The Legendary King: How the Figure of King Arthur Shaped a National
Identity and the Field of Archaeology in Britain.
Talbott, H. (2012). King Arthur and the Round Table . StarWalk Kids Media.
SCOTT, S. W. (2009) JANA ŠČIGULINSKÁ.
